DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
1. Claim(s) 1-3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application 2014/0139736 McCoy et al. (hereinafter McCoy) in view of U.S. Patent 9583142 Zhu et al. (hereinafter Zhu).
2. Regarding Claim 1, McCoy discloses A remote control device ([0042], “The user input device 116,… a remote control”), comprising:
a transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate with at least a processor of a display
device ([0040], “the receiver 112 may be a transceiver”; [0039], “The processor 110 couples to the receiver 112, the display screen 114.” [0041], “the display screen 114 may be external to the signal-processing device 102”);
a plurality of control elements to control a multimedia segment including a plurality of frames ([0023], “First content refers to a live or a recorded image and/or a video.”) to be displayed within a first display area of the display device ([0045], “The content manager 124 analyzes frames of the input video signal to detect the black bars and/or the filler content, and determines a portion of each frame that contains the first content 140.”), wherein the display device includes the first display area and a second display area disjoint from the first display area ([0021], “unutilized regions occurs on opposite sides of the first content region associated with the first content. The plurality of unutilized regions on the opposite sides of the first content region.” First display area + disjoint second display area is disclosed in a pillarbox format. [0101], “a first content region 502 with more height than width (e.g., a pillarbox format”) with “unutilized regions 504a and 504b appear respectively on the left and right side of the first content region 502.” The first content region 502 is the claimed first display area; the disjoint side region(s) 504a/504b are the claimed second display are disjoint from the first.), and each of the plurality of frames of the multimedia segment is displayed within the first display area ([0059], “The signal manager 134 displays the first content 140 within a first content display region on the display screen 114.” [0101], “The first content region 502 is associated with the first content 140.”); and
McCoy teaches ([0042], “The user input device 116 receives a user input for controlling operations of the signal-processing device 102.” [0039], “processor 110 executes a set of instructions stored in the memory device 118.” The device acts on that input to control the first content [0054], [0059]. McCoy shows the same coupling pattern (processor-receiver/transceiver-input device), but on the display device side, not packaged inside the remote).
However, McCoy may not explicitly disclose at least one controller coupled to the transceiver and the plurality of control elements and configured to:
receive an input from a first control element of the plurality of control elements;
transmit the input to control the multimedia segment being displayed within the first display area.
Zhu teaches at least one controller coupled to the transceiver and the plurality of control elements (Col. 17 lines 45-47, “the digital processing device 3201 includes a central processing unit (CPU, also “processor” …herein) 3205.” Along with Col. 17 lines 52-53, “communication interface 3220 (e.g., network adapter).” And an input device, where Col. 17 lines 56-58, “the memory 3210, storage unit 3215, interface 3220 and peripheral devices 3225 are in communication with the CPU 3205 through a communication bus.” Also states Col. 17 lines 29-30, “the input device is a touch screen or a multi-touch screen.” This is the controller (CPU 3205) structurally coupled to a transceiver (interface 3220) and control elements (touch screen) on a single handheld device- structural coupling.) and configured to:
receive an input from a first control element of the plurality of control elements (Col. 13 lines 44-45, “user can swipe up/down to browse the video feeds.” Confirms the control element is a Col. 17 lines 29-30, “touch screen or a multi-touch screen.” Feeding that input to CPU 3205);
and
transmit the input to control the multimedia segment being displayed within the first display area (Col. 13 lines 46-47, “once user swipe up/down, it will navigate to the next/previous music video and the selected music video will start to loop.” The CPU acts on the received input to control which segment is shown. Col. 18 lines 6-7, 12, “the CPU 3205 can execute a sequence of machine-readable instructions... to implement methods of the present disclosure.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to implement McCoy’s remote control device using Zhu’s handheld controller architecture – an internal processor coupled to a communication interface and a touch-screen control element because doing so merely applies a known, conventional remote-device structure (Zhu) to control a known display layout (McCoy), yielding the predictable result of a user remotely navigating content shown in McCoy’s first display region.
3. Regarding Claim 2, McCoy discloses The remote control device of claim 1, wherein the remote control device further includes a second control element ([0042], “The user input device 116 receives a user input for controlling operations… user input device 116 may include, but are not limited to, a keyboard, a mouse, a joystick, a gamepad, a stylus, a remote control, or a touch screen.” The same UI/remote already coupled to multiple functions)) of the plurality of control elements to control a creator profile of the multimedia segment that is displayed in the second display area concurrently with the multimedia segment ([0030], “the metadata associated with the sports event may include profiles of players, information about location of the sports event, team statistics, real-time score, remaining time of the sport event, etc.” [0089], “The rules engine 130 utilizes a rule that the additional information about the first content 140 is associated with the consolidated region.”) or
an advertisement related to the multimedia segment that is displayed in the second display area ([0026], “second content “may include… an advertisement.” [0027], a rule to “associate an advertisement related to the first content with the consolidated display region.” concurrently with the multimedia segment ([0059], “The signal manager 134 displays the first content 140 within a first content display region…and… displays the second content 142 within a consolidated display region on the display screen 114.” Both are rendered together on the same display screen i.e., concurrently).
4. Regarding Claim 3, McCoy discloses The remote control device of claim 2, wherein the at least one controller is further configured to:
receive a second input from the second control element ([0054], “the user interface allows the user to provide an instruction to swap the first content 140 associated with the first content region with at least a portion of the second content 142 associated with the consolidated region.” This is a second, distinct user input (separate from the input that merely plays/controls the first content) directed at the second area content.); and
transmit the second input to control the displaying of the creator profile or the advertisement
related in the second display area ([0059], “The signal manager 134 displays the first content 140 within a first content display region… displays the second content 142 within a consolidated display region.” The signal manager acts on the received instruction to control what’s rendered in that consolidated (second) region- i.e., it transmits/executes the second input to control display of the second-area content, which per [0026]/[0030] can be the advertisement or profile/metadata content mapped in claim 2).
5. Regarding Claim 7, McCoy in view of Zhu discloses The remote control device of claim 1,
Zhu discloses wherein the remote control device is a mobile device (Col. 18 lines 31-36, smartphone. Col. 20 lines 55-59, “mobile device” Fig. 12: “Mobile Device 1 + Musically App”), and the plurality of control elements are displayed on a screen of the mobile device (Fig. 1 shows the application’s onscreen icons rendered directly on the touch display-a home icon, search icon, “+” capture button, a lighting-bolt icon, and profile icon all overlaid on the video-confirming the input device is Col. 17 lines 29-30, “input device is a touch screen or a multi-touch screen.”) and implemented by a software application operated by the mobile device (Col. 20 lines 30-32, “a computer program includes a mobile application provided to a mobile digital processing device.”).
6. Claim 8 is a method claim, rejected with respect to the same limitations rejected in device claim 1.
7. Claim 9 is a method claim, rejected with respect to the same limitations rejected in device claim 2.
8. Claim 10 is a method claim, rejected with respect to the same limitations rejected in device claim 3.
9. Claim 14 is a method claim, rejected with respect to the same limitations rejected in device claim 7.
10. Claim 15 is a non-transitory CRM claim, rejected with respect to the same limitations rejected in device claim 1.
11. Claim 16 is a non-transitory CRM claim, rejected with respect to the same limitations rejected in device claim 2.
12. Claim 17 is a non-transitory CRM claim, rejected with respect to the same limitations rejected in device claim 3.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
13. Claim(s) 4, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McCoy in view of Zhu as applied to claim 3, 10 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent 4959719, Strubbe et al. (hereinafter Strubbe).
14. Regarding Claim 4, McCoy discloses The remote control device of claim 3,
McCoy may not explicitly disclose wherein the remote control device further includes a third control element of the plurality of control elements to select the multimedia segment as an active display content, and a fourth control element of the plurality of control elements to select the
creator profile or the advertisement as the active display content
Strubbe teaches wherein the remote control device further includes a third control element of the plurality of control elements to select the multimedia segment as an active display content (the M/P button, when set to select the main-picture tuner, makes the main picture the target of the numeric/up-down controls-i.e., selects the main-display content as the “active” content the controls operate on. Col. 3 lines 43-46, “The M/P button enables control means 17 to select which tuner the remote will control in response to the operation of the 0-9 buttons and the UP/DOWN buttons.” Col. 3 lines 53-61, “control means 17 causes indicating means 35 and audio/video control circuitry 31 to cause the main picture to display an indicating means in the form of asterisk 39 in the main picture in accordance with the signal transmitted by indicating means generator 35. This indicates to a viewer that the remote control buttons 014 9 and the UP/DOWN buttons control channel changing of the main picture MD.” This reads on selecting the segment-bearing region as the “active display content”-the controls’ operations are now directed at it, without relocating it), and a fourth control element of the plurality of control elements to select the creator profile or the advertisement as the active display content (the same M/P button toggled to the other state makes the PIP region (the analog of your second display area) the target of those same controls. (Abstract; Col. 1 lines 32-38, “One of the advantages of the invention is that the same user operated controls are used to control both the main picture and the picture-in-picture display. One of the features of the invention is the provision of an indicating means on the television screen to indicate which picture the controls have control over at any particular time.” Col. 3 lines 43-46, “The M/P button enables control means 17 to select which tuner the remote will control in response to the operation of the 0-9 buttons and the UP/DOWN buttons.” Col. 3 lines 58-61, “This indicates to a viewer that the remote control buttons 014 9 and the UP/DOWN buttons control channel changing of the main picture MD.” Col. 3 line 62-col. 4 line 3. ).
It would have been obvious to combine McCoy /Zhu with Strubbe because Strubbe already teaches a control that directs a remote’s existing buttons to one displayed region or the other without relocating content- “the same user operated controls are used to control both the main picture and the picture-in-picture display” (Strubbe Col. 1 lines 32-34)- so applying this known technique to McCoy/Zhu’s two-region display yields only the predictable result of letting a viewer choose which region the controls act on; implementing Strubbe’s single toggle as two discrete elements is a trivial predictable design choice.
15. Claim 11 is a method claim, rejected with respect to the same limitations rejected in device claim 4.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
16. Claim(s) 5, 12, 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McCoy in view of Zhu further in view of Strubbe as applied to claim 4, 11, and 18 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent 8613020, Knudson et al. (hereinafter Knudson).
17. Regarding Claim 5, McCoy in view of Zhu further in view of Strubbe discloses The remote control device of claim 4,
McCoy in view of Zhu further in view of Strubbe may not explicitly disclose
wherein the third control element includes a right control element to select the multimedia segment as the active display content, and the fourth control element includes a left control element to select the creator profile or the advertisement as the active display content.
Knudson teaches wherein the third control element includes a right control element to select the multimedia segment as the active display content (Claim 1, “navigating a highlight region, in response to the command, wherein the command is invoked by the directional key on the remote control, from the program listings information in the program listings region to the selectable advertisement in the other region when the selectable advertisement is not currently highlighted; generating for display the new program listing in the program listings region, in response to the command, wherein the command is invoked by the directional key on the remote control, when the selectable advertisement in the other region is currently highlighted”), and the fourth control element includes a left control element to select the creator profile or the advertisement as the active display content (Fig. 8; Col. 8 lines 4-9, “Another way in which the program guide may allow the user to select advertisements such as advertisements 82 and 94 is to provide a special remote control button. Left and right cursor keys may be used to access advertisements (e.g., panel advertisements to the left or right of the program listing) if desired.” See also Fig. 12; Col. 9 lines 33-38, “The user may navigate to panel advertisements such as advertisements 128a and 128b using special (e.g., dedicated or numeric) remote control buttons or by using the left and right cursor keys (in which case the left and right cursor keys are not used for browsing program listings at different times).”).
It would have been obvious to assign Strubbe’s active region toggle to left/right keys per Knudson’s known convention- “left and right cursor keys may be used to access advertisements…to the left or right of the program listing” (Knudson)-since mapping a directional key to the side region it spatially corresponds to is a predictable application of known technique.
18. Claim 12 is a method claim, rejected with respect to the same limitations rejected in device claim 5.
19. Claim 19 is a non-transitory CRM claim, rejected with respect to the same limitations rejected in device claim 5.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
20. Claim(s) 6, 13, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McCoy in view of Zhu as applied to claim 2, 9, 16 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent 8613020 Knudson et al. (hereinafter Knudson).
21. Regarding Claim 6, McCoy in view of Zhu discloses The remote control device of claim 2, wherein the multimedia segment is one of a plurality of multimedia segments including a previous multimedia segment and a next multimedia segment (McCoy: [0026],” thumbnail videos having content similar to the first content.” But doesn’t characterize them as a navigable previous /next sequence),
McCoy teaches creator profile of the multimedia segment to be an active
display content displayed in the second display area ([0030], “metadata associated with the sports event may include profiles of players” and [0089], “profile of players playing the match…within the consolidated display region of the display screen 114.”),
select the multimedia segment as the active display content to be displayed within the first display area ([0023], first content = video and [0101] first content region 502)
Zhu discloses multimedia segment is one of a plurality of multimedia segments including a previous multimedia segment and a next multimedia segment (Col. 2 line 9, “the feed comprising a plurality of lip-sync videos.” Supplies the feed structure directly.)
and the remote control device (Col. 18 lines31-36, remote systems, e.g. smartphones) further includes:
a down control element to select the next multimedia segment to be displayed within the first
display area, an up control element to select the previous multimedia segment to be displayed within the first display area (Col. 13 lines 44-45, “user can swipe up/down to browse the video feeds” and Col. 13 lines 46-48, “once user swipe up/down, it will navigate to the next/previous music video and the selected music video will start to loop.”),
Further Knudson discloses a left control element to select the multimedia segment (Col. 8 lines 6-9, “Left and right cursor keys may be used to access advertisements (e.g., panel advertisements to the left or right of the program listing) if desired.” And (Fig. 12 discussion): Col. 9 lines 33-36, “The user may navigate to panel advertisements…by using the left and right cursor keys.” This is the left-key -selects the side content teaching.),
a right control element to select the multimedia segment (Claim 1, “generating for display the new program listing in the program listings region… when the selectable advertisement in the other region is currently highlighted”-i.e., right returns/keeps control on the main content region.)
It would have been obvious to combine Zhu’s up/down feed-navigation – “swipe up down to browse the video feeds” and “navigate to the next/previous music video” (Zhu, col. 13) with Knudson’s left/right region selection – “left and right cursor keys may be used to access advertisements…to the left or right of the program listing” (Knudson) – within McCoy’s two region display, since each known technique operates in its own predictable manner: up/down pages through segments, left/right selects which region the remote controls.
22. Claim 13 is a method claim, rejected with respect to the same limitations rejected in device claim 6.
23. Claim 20 is a non-transitory CRM claim, rejected with respect to the same limitations rejected in device claim 6.
Conclusion
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/OMER KHALID/Examiner, Art Unit 2422
/BRIAN P YENKE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2422
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